Armor & Mobility

SEP-OCT 2016

Military magazines in the United States and Canada, covering Armor and Mobility, focuses on tactical vehicles, C4ISR, Special Operations Forces, latest soldier equipment, shelters, and key DoD programs

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U.S. Army and Defense Logistics Agency disposal and distribution teams are removing more
than 1.2 million pieces of excess equipment from inventories.
By Beth Reece, DLA Public Affairs
The effort, known as "All Army Divestiture," is expected to free
soldiers from costly, time-consuming maintenance on unneeded
items as the service reduces its force structure.
"All this extra equipment encumbers the service in terms of
people, manpower hours, resources and money for parts. As we help
take unneeded equipment off the Army's property books, soldiers can
focus on the mission-essential equipment that's staying in the force
structure. It's all about readiness," said COL Mike Arnold, DLA's Army
national account manager.
DLA will assist with divestiture efforts at 13 U.S. installations.
Initial planning for each location will be based on the Army's Master
Divestiture List and equipment calculations in the Army's Decision
Support Tool, which weighs the items on units' property books with
what units are authorized. That data will be used to create a plan
agreed to by a joint working group comprising installation and unit
leaders, as well as representatives from the Army's Deputy Chief of
Staff for Logistics, U.S. Army Forces Command and Army Materiel
Command.
"We're all going to sit down together and look at what's excess,
then do a bottom-up review of it. We'll agree, on an installation and
unit basis, to what's going to be turned in or destroyed, what space
it's going to be done in and the process for how it's going to be done,"
Arnold said.
DLA gives units two options for divesting surplus equipment.
They can turn it into DLA Disposition Services, which will make it
available to other federal agencies as required by law. If no federal
agency wants the materiel, DLA Disposition Services will demilitarize
it, then auction it off to the public — or break it down into scrap
material that can be sold.
The service may also transfer excess equipment to DLA
Distribution for repair and storage. In the past, units spent "an
inordinate amount of money" shipping equipment to Red River Army
Depot in Texas or Sierra Army Depot in California only to have it
shipped elsewhere, Arnold said.
"The second-destination costs associated with doing that was
a huge expense for the Army that can now be mitigated through
DLA's partnership with the Army. DLA has agreed to send in a team
from DLA Distribution to accept items the Army wants to keep on
its property books at numerous CONUS-based Army installations
where there is sufficient equipment to warrant our forward presence.
CONSOLIDATING FORCE PROVISIONING
DLA Disposition Services Property Disposal Specialist Oscar Montiel (right) helps soldiers turn in Army equipment at Ft. Bliss, TX. (Photo by Jeff Landenberger)
www.tacticaldefensemedia.com
36 | Armor & Mobility September/October 2016
LOGISTICS CORNER: DLA